Union Lockout Continues, No Bargaining Scheduled

The union that represents locked out nursing home workers in Milford has declined to schedule another negotiating session even though weeks have elapsed since the last time the two sides met.

Although HealthBridge Management has repeatedly threatened to lock out workers at its other unionized homes — in Newington, Wethersfield, Stamford, Westport and Danbury — so far, it has not followed through on the threat.

The company did, however, file a complaint Friday with the National Labor Relations Board about what it sees as stalling tactics, alleging the union is breaking the law by failing to bargain.

On Dec. 28, negotiators for District 1199 of the Service Employees International Union offered a small concession on health care cost-sharing, saying workers who take family health insurance plans would be willing to pay $15 a month toward premiums, and $5 a month for single health insurance coverage.

HealthBridge countered that workers should pay $121 a month for single coverage and $600 a month for family plans.

"The affiliated health care centers were ready to continue bargaining. The Union made an offer, we countered, and we expected them to counter again — that's how bargaining works," said Lisa Crutchfield, vice president for labor relations at HealthBridge.

District 1199 says the health care proposals amount to ending health coverage because the workers are not paid enough to afford it at those prices. Nurse's aides at the centers make an average of $15.61 an hour, for example.

Rather than scheduling new talks, SEIU has asked for proof that the company has made cost comparisons between health insurance carriers, and has asked for details about a proposed 401(k) plan — what type of funds would be offered, what kind of education workers would receive about their investment choices, and who would manage the plans.

The company said that it provided the health plan details the union asked for more than a week ago, and that the insistence on information about the 401(k) is bogus, because the union has said repeatedly it would never agree to replacing the pension with a 401(k).

"Even if the Union 'needed' some additional information on the medical contributions or 401(k) — which is dubious — there are plenty of other open issues on which we could have met to negotiate and tried to reach agreement," Crutchfield said.

Deborah Chernoff, a spokeswoman for District 1199, disagreed with Crutchfield's argument that the company's counter to the union's offer was how bargaining works.

"It's not a game where you inch your playing piece forward and say, look, I moved," she said. "We're not playing chess here.

"I'm sure that we will be meeting, but what they're indicating to us is that those meetings won't be productive. That's why we think the fundamental problem is not the lack of meeting."

The company had offered to submit to binding arbitration on raises, health insurance cost sharing, and all other matters if the union would agree to freezing the pension and moving to a 401(k).

HealthBridge now contributes 8 percent of payroll into a pension. Under its 401(k) proposal, it would contribute .75 percent to the 401(k), and that would happen only if an employee put 3 percent of her wages into the savings account. The company would give a 3 percent raise to those who are vested in the pension to reward them for giving up the benefit, over and above the baseline raise.

Crutchfield said HealthBridge Management "would like nothing better than to finalize agreements, get the West River Health Care Center employees back on the job, and put these disputes behind them."